


Addiction Creates the Ghost of a Good Mood

by orphan_account



Category: Gorillaz
Genre: Drug Addiction, Drugs, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 13:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3382478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>2D had certainly passed out in her bed after the party they'd thrown last night, but now that he's no longer there, Noodle is thrown into an immediate panic. Knowing his rather volatile nature, she needs to find him and make sure he's okay, and fast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Addiction Creates the Ghost of a Good Mood

**Author's Note:**

> Hi again guys!
> 
> So this certainly isn't as cute or fluffy as my last fic. It's both a vent piece and an excuse to hone my hurt/comfort writing skills. Murdoc and Russel both play a small part in this as well, and I can only hope that I wrote their characters okay at least! I'd actually love some comments on the characterization of everyone in the story, I'm a little worried that I'm not capturing their personalities as well as I want to.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you guys like this! It was a bit of a quickie, admittedly.

_not in my bedroom, not in his bedroom, not in anyone’s bedroom, maybe the bathroom? not the bathroom, shit shit SHIT, people just dont disappear -_

In a pure state of panic, Noodle’s socks slip out from beneath her as she rushes down the stairs of the trashed apartment, sending her tumbling down the last couple of steps. Despite a throbbing pain in her left wrist and a temporarily numb left cheek, she scrambles to her feet and starts rushing to the kitchen. It seems that the impact of her body on the floor caught the attention of another occupant in the house and she collides directly into Murdoc. Both bodies stumble back but neither of them fall at least.

**”Oy, what the fuck are you on about?”** Murdoc sends a snarl-toothed scowl her way and blocks her way to the kitchen. **”First you nosedive off the staircase and then try to run me down? You trying to kill me _and_ yourself?”** Noodle is desperately trying to dodge around him in some way, but his arms are outstretched and his body moves in time with hers.

**”Murdoc mooooooove, I really need to get past you!”** When it becomes apparent that he won’t be getting out of her way until she tells him what’s gotten her so worked up, she lets her shoulders sag and takes a couple seconds to compose herself. **”Okay! Okay. 2D isn’t _anywhere_ and I’m worried about him, so either tell me where he is if you know or let me through!”** The smaller woman knows damn well that she could easily get him out of her way if she _really_ needed to, but using force on her friends - yes, even Murdoc - is a practice she tries not to indulge in too often.

Lips pursing, Murdoc ponders her words for a second before snapping his fingers. **”That ol’ bugger? Saw him stumbling through the kitchen not even thirty minutes ago - heading towards the basement I think. He seemed pretty fucked in the head though, might have taken a fall down the stairs. Figured he still has his party goggles on from the rager we threw last night, heh. I, uh, would’ve checked on him but I was cooking, couldn’t let the house catch on fire because that klutz lost his footing again…”** Not willing to let him finish his rambling, Noodle shoves him with a force directed at his chest. Older and less balanced than he once was, Murdoc reels backwards and dramatically falls against a counter, snarling his teeth at the brute force used to get him out of the way. There’s no time for a discussion though because Noodle is zooming past him; he makes an attempt to grab at her ankle, wanting to berate her for her justified concern, but he misses.

She decides that she’ll deal with Murdoc and his blatant disregard for the vocalist’s safety later because right now the only thing on her mind is whether 2D is alright or not. **”2D? 2D, please answer me, are you down here? Are you okay?”** It’s silent for all of two seconds until the sound of multiple lightweight objects hitting the ground startles her. **”2D!”** Hurrying the rest of the way into the cluttered basement, she bumps into things blindly on her way to the dimly lit bathroom at the other end of the room.

Once the entirety of the small room is in sight, it’s plain to see the lanky 2D scrambling around on the floor in an attempt to collect pills that he’d dropped. Something tells her that he wasn’t expecting another voice in the basement and had been startled enough to drop the opened bottle on the ground. A half-full bottle of beer sits dangerously close to the edge of the grubby sink above 2D, which he promptly hits his head on once Noodle clears her throat to get his attention. **”Nood - Yowch! Fuck - Noodle, I - I didn’t think ya to be awake at this hour, I, um, you’re awake! Hi.”** With a sigh of defeat he drops whatever pills he has in his hand into their designated bottle and leans back against the bathroom wall to sit with his legs outstretched and his hands limply in his lap. He looks like a puppy who’s just been caught doing something bad by his owner.

Lowering herself to the ground, she joins him against the wall and together they sit in silence, 2D twiddling his fingers and Noodle rubbing at her injured wrist.

**”I - I wasn’t trying t’do anything stupid, honest.”** He finally speaks out and from the slurring in his words, it’s quite apparent that he’s under the influence of alcohol and the painkillers that he so avidly ingests. **”Honest.”**

**”I don’t get it 2D,”** Noodle isn’t one to beat around the bush when it comes to feelings or things that so obviously need to discussed, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to make an exception here. **”I don’t get it. If you were feeling like...Like this, why wouldn’t you wake me up? You sleep right next to me. I want to help, I don’t want you to feel like this.”** To be completely honest, she’s not sure how 2D is feeling or why he does this to himself, she hopes the implications that she’s clueless but with good intentions urges him to share with her.

He doesn’t.

**”But you - you were sleeping, you don’t sleep much at all! Neither do I but neither do you. That’s most important, um. I wanted you to sleep b - because you were, soundly, and all that. You looked nice. I didn’t want to bother you.”** His excuse leaves his mouth as an unconfident stutter.

**”Bullshit.** Unafraid to call him out, Noodle frowns alongside 2D. More silence.

**”It’s not!”** 2D clenches his fists and looks towards the guitarist. **”I - It’s really not! I’ll tell you why - wait, Noodle…”** One of his shaky hands lifts and reaches towards her face. Cautiously, she looks from his face to his hand and back to his face, flinching away when his fingers brush against the tender bruise on her cheek. **”Love, you’re all banged up.”**

**”I fell down the stairs looking for you.”** Grasping his one hand in between both of hers, a gesture she performs quite often because whether he admits it or not 2D finds it comforting, she moves it away from her face and into her lap, where she just holds it and rubs her fingers along his dry skin as the conversation progresses. **”Don’t change the subject, I’m fine. It only hurts a little bit. You can patch it up later. My wrist too.”** 2D smiles, satisfied with that answer. He loves feeling like he’s taking care of Noodle considering it’s quite often the opposite with them.

**”Before we keep talking can - can I just...I want one more, just one more pill. Can I have just one more?”** 2D’s hand attempts to pull away from Noodle’s grasp, but she forcefully holds it, only letting go to quickly snatch the bottle of pills from him. Almost desperately he reaches and grabs at the confiscated item, but to no luck. Defeated, his hands fall limply to his sides and he stares at his lap.

Meanwhile, Noodle finds herself getting too emotional over the situation as she tears up and starts shaking the bottle with her palm covering the opening. The rattling of the pills inside the small orange tube is loud and it certainly shakes 2D up because he’s now covering his head with his arms as if he’s trying to hide from the loud noise. **”Why do you do this? Why do you need these!? It’s dumb and you’re dumb, you’re going to hurt yourself if you just keep telling yourself _one more, one more, one fucking more!_ ”** Her voice steadily heightens from a calm but stern tone to a clearly upset cry.

**”I don’t - I don’t know, I don’t know!”** 2D continues to hide away in his arms from the loud pills and from Noodle herself, frightened of the sudden emotion thrust into her voice.

**”What if I just kept taking one more, huh? Would you let me, huh? Huh!?”** Quitting with the rattling, she instead pours the remains of the pill supply into her open palm. The bottle clatters to the floor and she holds the painkillers threateningly close to her mouth. She has no intention of taking them but she does want 2D to realize how scary it is to see someone you love indulge in this kind of thing. Trying to get 2D to understand something is occasionally difficult and demonstrating it or putting him in the situation is often the best way to get it through his head.

2D is now choking on his breath and shaking his head, saying ‘no’ in a repeated ramble. Her threats pull him out of his attempted hiding maneuver and he makes grabs at her hand, still saying no at different levels of volume. Noodle effectively holds his hands and arms away from her with her free hand; one of the pills spills out of her open palm from the struggle though. At this point the inebriated man is on his hands and knees in attempts to get her to quit. **”You can’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that, I’m sorry but pl - please you can’t do that!”** After just several seconds of struggling with her - it felt like forever, though - one of his hands slips out from beneath him and he collapses into her lap.

**”It’s _bullshit_ , all of it is bullshit! I hate it I hate it I hate it!”** What started as an attempt at convincing 2D that his behavior is dangerous and unacceptable has now turned into something close to a tantrum. Noodle throws the pills straight out of the bathroom and they’re scattered all across the basement. The next thing to go sailing out of the small room is the pill bottle, which crashes against the wall by the stairs and shatters.

**~~~~~**

At this point, the commotion from the basement has attracted the attention of a still rather large Russel who calls for Murdoc, much to the bassist’s annoyance. Grumbling and more grumpy than ever thanks to the racket from below, he lifts himself from a chair at the kitchen table and sticks his head out of a window to yell that he doesn’t want to be bothered. **”Man, how about you stop being such a selfish prick and have some concern for your friends,”** Russel’s booming voice silences Murdoc immediately. **”I can hear Noodle yelling and it’s starting to freak me out, go check on her.”**

**”If you’re so concerned with her then why don’t _you_ go check on her? Oh, that’s right, you’ve still got a few pounds to lose, huh fatty? How longs it gonna be before you’re back to normal size, eh? I’m tired of doing all the ‘checking up’ on people around here! They’re grown ass adults, they can take care of themselves!”** Murdoc sneers in response to the large man’s request. From atop the roof, Russel furrows his brows and frowns.

**”If I’m coming in there, I’m taking this whole house down, and your rooms the one I’m starting with! I think we both know that 2D has trouble taking care of himself, the difference here is that I actually give a damn, now hurry up and see what’s going on ‘fore I grab you from that window and send you straight into the bottom level myself.”** Knowing full well that Russel doesn’t fuck around with this kind of stuff, Murdoc mutters a few insults under his breath while he pulls his head back into the kitchen and bitterly makes his way towards the basement. 

Just as he appears at the doorway to the staircase leading downwards, something orange flies into the wall and explodes, sending sharp pieces of plastic everywhere. God _damn_ that kid has got an arm on her. Now not only annoyed with the events of the day so far but also with the threat of cutting one of his feet open on sharp plastic, Murdoc descends halfway down the staircase and bends down to peer into the messy area. **”You kids better not be trying to kill each other down here!”** _’Better not be fucking either...’_ the thought causes him to snicker slyly. What a compromising situation that’d be!

Sobbing and indistinguishable rambling coming from the bathroom indicates that it’s quite the opposite actually, and it also lets him know that the situation is one he really doesn’t want to be involved in. It’s something emotionally spending and that’s the kind of shit he likes to avoid. Not receiving an answer to his initial attempt at contacting the two, he slowly ascends up the stairs backwards, hoping they don’t finally answer and force him to be involved. With nothing of the sort happening, he grins and re-enters the kitchen, closing the door behind him - this will get rid of any other light source in the basement at the moment aside from the dim bathroom lighting, but that’s their fucking problem. He figures he’d better let Russel know that everything is A-okay.

**~~~~**

At this point, 2D has entirely crawled into Noodle’s lap despite being the bigger of the two. She doesn’t mind though. His legs are wrapped tightly around her and his face is buried into her shoulder as he sobs and sobs and sobs. Noodle isn’t doing any better though; both of them are emotionally exhausted from the entire ordeal, but they continue to cry into each other’s shoulders anyways. 2D’s noises are a mixture of incoherent crying and apologies while Noodle is just letting him know in various ways that she really can’t stand to see him like this.

**”I can’t - I can’t just _stop_ though, Noods...Nothing else works the same, it’s hard, don’t you get it? I - It gives me a break, I can’t just stop, n - nothing works!”** It’s true - kicking an addiction is hard and tedious work, and even then there’s always the inevitable relapse, perhaps even multiple times. Overall, expecting 2D to drop his problem right then and there is unrealistic and impossible, and it’s not something Noodle is going to put him through. But goddammit if she’s not going to support him every step of the way.

**”Sh, it’s okay, we’ll figure it out later, let’s just. Calm down for now, please, can we just calm down? I don’t like this.”** Noodle’s face is pressed into the side of the blue-haired man’s head and her words are soft. She’s composed herself emotionally at this point and is simply trying to calm 2D down now; speaking in a soft voice will help. Not once relenting on the tight hold she has on his body, she lets him sit with her like that for an undetermined amount of time until his sniffling and strained breathing calms down.

**”Y - You promise you’ll be there for me? Like, always? Promise?”** 2D keeps his face hidden in her shoulder as if he’s embarrassed about wanting the reassurance.

**”Forever, 2D. I promise.”**

She can safely say that the only thing that could make her break her promise is 2D himself and she can only hope that he won’t ever want her to do such a thing.


End file.
